Dec. 4, 2012

Dennis Julius

Written by

The Courier-Journal

Paul Fetter

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A second Southern Indiana municipality is joining the fight to block downtown tolling on the Ohio River Bridges Project — vowing to spend $10,000 to help stop the effort.

The Jeffersonville City Council has tentatively approved giving money from gaming proceeds to the Clark-Floyd Counties Convention and Tourism Bureau, which voterd last month with the Clarksville Town Council to each spend $10,000 on an Indianapolis law firm to file a lawsuit.

While they say they support the Ohio River Bridges Project, all three want to block plans to toll the Kennedy Bridge and a new Interstate 65 span that is to be built next to it.

They argue that an economic study shows that tolling would cause about $7 billion in business revenue and job losses over the next 30 years along the Interstate 65 corridor, mainly affecting the Clarksville and Jeffersonville business districts.

Bridge project advocates say the economic report released in April predicts that the Ohio River Bridges Project will have an overall positive effect, directly leading to 9,000 new jobs and creating new access and development near the planned East End bridge connecting Utica and eastern Jefferson County.

But opponents such as Paul Fetter, a Clarksville town councilman and a founder of the anti-tolling group No2BridgeTolls, says the costs outweigh the benefits.

“You can’t say that $70 billion (in new revenue) takes care of $7 billion (in losses elsewhere) unless you use some of it to offset the $7 billion,” he said.

The Indiana Finance Authority Board last month selected WVB East End Partners’ proposal to design and build the East End bridge for $763 million, which Indiana officials said is more than $200 million less than an earlier estimate of $987 million.

Indiana’s section is expected to be essentially done by Nov. 1, 2016, or about eight months ahead of the state’s required completion date.

Kentucky is overseeing the new downtown bridge and Spaghetti Junction reconstruction. The Chicago firm Walsh Construction submitted the winning bid, promising to get the job done in less than four years at a cost of $860 million.

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Jeffersonville City Council Attorney Scott Lewis said the money will be restricted against being given to any private entity, which had been a point of contention for some council members who initially heard plans for a lawsuit last month.

Lewis will draft an interlocal agreement with the tourism bureau, and the council will take a final vote on the agreement.

Interlocal agreements also require the signature of Mayor Mike Moore, who said last month that he would like to see local input on how tolls are set and that he can see joining in a lawsuit “if we have some confidence that we can stop tolling on the downtown bridges.”

The report acknowledged there would be an economic shift away from the I-65 exits in Jeffersonville and Clarksville, including the permanent loss of the southbound exit — Exit 0 — into downtown Jeffersonville at Market Street. Plans call for that exit to be replaced by a ramp at Stansifer Avenue in Clarksville, about one mile north.

Fetter, who was among the attendees at a public bridges meeting last weekend, said he and tourism officials also met recently with their attorneys.

They’re still deciding on the best way to challenge tolls, whether by filing suit against the latest revised plan for the Ohio River Bridges Project or by challenging another aspect of the project.

Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Will Wingfield said the deadline to file a lawsuit requesting judicial review of the June 20 federal approval of the bridges project is Dec. 26 — 180 days after it was published in the Federal Register.

Jeffersonville Councilman Dennis Julius said it’s important to join the tourism bureau and Clarksville in a lawsuit or other procedural challenge to show that local communities are opposed to tolls that will hurt some local businesses.

Julius, along with fellow council members Mike Smith, Zach Payne, Connie Sellers, Lisa Gill and Ed Zastawny, voted Monday night to allocate the money and allow Lewis to proceed with drafting the agreement.

Samuel said the city has already twice voted against tolls, and he questioned how successful any challenge will be. He also quoted an email from an Indiana Department of Transportation official, who told him that the project won’t have a $7 billion negative impact.

“How much time do we spend on this?” Glover asked, adding he feels the city is a small fish in a big pond.